Issuing statements of apology, The Los Angeles Times has admitted that their recent story was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated. The story, which involves the shooting of Tupac Shakur in NY was published by The LA Times last week and suggested that they had obtained "FBI records" in which a confidential informant accused two men of helping to set up the attack on Shakur -- James Rosemond, a prominent rap talent manager, and James Sabatino, identified in the story as a promoter.

The story said the two allegedly wanted to curry favor with Sean "Puffy" Combs and believed Shakur had disrespected them.

 Times Editor Russ Stanton announced that the newspaper would launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting surrounding the story. Stanton said he took the criticisms of the March 17 report "very seriously."

"We published this story with the sincere belief that the documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the point," Stanton said in a statement.

"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used. We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the story. We are continuing to investigate this matter and will fulfill our journalistic responsibility for critical self-examination."